The BALMUDA The Toaster is a high-end toaster oven with a compact design. It stands out for its small size, minimalist design, and 'Steam' function, which you can use to keep bread moist as it toasts or restore crispiness to a slice of leftover pizza. Unlike most toaster ovens, it has two different functions for toasting: one for sandwich bread and one for denser artisan or bakery bread. It comes with a baking tray and wire rack.
Our Verdict
The BALMUDA The Toaster isn't very versatile. Its small size limits what you can use it for. It'll fit a couple of slices of sandwich bread, an 8" mini pizza, or a small batch of cookies, but it won't fit standard cookware like a loaf or cake pan. It's intended for toasting and reheating small items like pastries and performs decently well for those purposes. It maintains a very stable temperature during cooking, so it's also a good choice for small batches of baked goods. However, it's not intended for air frying and isn't suitable for that purpose.
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Maintains a stable temperature.
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Decent for reheating leftovers.
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Small capacity.
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Toasts slowly.
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No fan or air fry mode.
The BALMUDA The Toaster is decent for reheating leftovers. Its elements heat evenly, and it never overshoots your chosen temperature setting, which helps ensure your food doesn't dry out before it's heated through. However, its small cooking chamber is best suited for reheating small items or one serving at a time. It preheats slowly for such a small toaster oven, which is disappointing if you want to reheat a quick snack.
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Maintains a stable temperature.
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Preheats slowly.
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Small capacity.
The BALMUDA The Toaster has excellent temperature stability, making it well-suited for baking. It maintains a mostly stable temperature during cooking and never overshoots your selected setting. The temperature inside the cooking chamber is also very uniform. This helps make the toaster oven more predictable and makes it easier to get good results when baking something like a chicken breast or a small batch of cookies.
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Maintains a stable temperature.
The BALMUDA The Toaster isn't meant for air frying. It has no fan, and its small cooking chamber doesn't give you much room for arranging food in a single layer. If you use it for commonly air-fried food like French fries, only a small proportion of your food comes out crispy. It's also very slow compared with most good drawer-style air fryers.
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No fan or air fry mode.
The BALMUDA The Toaster is decent for toasting. If you use its maximum capacity of two slices, it toasts both quite evenly. However, it cooks the top of the bread much faster than the bottom. It's also pretty slow, considering its small capacity. This toaster oven has a 'Sandwich Bread' setting and an 'Artisan Bread' setting, which is meant to use higher heat for denser breads. You can also use either setting with steam, which is intended to keep the inside of your bread moist while the outside gets crispy.
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Toasts quite evenly.
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Small capacity.
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Toasts slowly.
The BALMUDA The Toaster has a very small capacity. It fits an 8" pizza, a couple of pieces of sandwich bread, or a pastry or two.
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Small capacity.
- 5.7 Mixed Usage
- 7.0 Leftovers
Performance Usages
- 8.9 Baking
- 1.8 Air Frying
- 7.0 Toasting
- 5.3 Cooking Capacity
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
This toaster oven comes in 'Black,' 'White,' 'Gray,' and 'Taupe.' We tested it in 'Black.' Here's a photo of our unit's label.
If you encounter another variant, let us know in the comments, and we'll update our review.
Compared To Other Toaster Ovens
The BALMUDA The Toaster is a very small toaster oven primarily intended for toasting bread and reheating items like pastries or a slice of pizza. This compact toaster oven is smaller than most others on the market, except for the much cheaper Dash Mini DMTO100. It can only fit a couple of slices of bread but has a 'Steam' function that can help keep food moist while it toasts or reheats. However, it preheats slowly for such a small toaster oven, so it won't be the fastest option for reheating leftovers. Otherwise, it's not as versatile as other compact (but slightly bigger) toaster ovens like the Breville the Mini Smart Oven BOV450XL or the Panasonic FlashXpress NB-G110P, which can each fit four slices and preheat much faster.
Test Results
This is a very small toaster oven. It's more compact than most on the market and can fit onto a small shelf.
The BALMUDA Toaster Oven has a small cooking chamber. It can fit a couple of pieces of bread, a sandwich, or a small 8" pizza. Taller items like a loaf of bread or standard dishes like a 9" x 9" cake pan won't fit. There's only one possible rack position.
- 6.3" x 8.6" baking tray (16 cm x 22 cm)
- 7.5" x 10.4" wire rack (19 cm x 26.5 cm)
- User guides
It's not very versatile, as it lacks some features you can expect from most toaster ovens. There's no broil mode, and this model has a very small temperature range. The timer only goes up to 15 minutes. There's also no fan for air frying or convection cooking.
That said, it does have a steam function, which is meant to help keep your food moist while crisping it up. We didn't notice a difference when we tried toasting sandwich bread with the steam function. However, you might find it's more useful for reheating day-old pastries or reviving stale bread.
| Function | Temperature | Timer | Steam |
| Sandwich bread | 'Moderate' | 1 - 15 minutes (Manual recommends 2.5 - 3.5 minutes) | Optional |
| Artisan bread | 'Moderate-High' | 1 - 5 minutes (Manual recommends 3 - 4 minutes) | Optional |
| Pizza | 'High' | 1 - 15 minutes (Manual recommends 3 - 5 minutes) | Optional |
| Pastry | 'Moderate' | 1 - 15 minutes (Manual recommends 3 - 4 minutes) | Optional |
| Oven Mode | 350 °F, 400 °F, or 450 °F | 1 - 15 minutes | No |
The BALMUDA Toaster Oven isn't easy to clean. Its small size makes it awkward to reach into. The interior and baking tray lack a non-stick coating, making removing stuck-on grease more difficult. The upper and lower elements are covered and nearly impossible to clean around. That said, it has no sharp corners that could cut you.
It performs well for toasting at maximum capacity. It can fit a couple of slices of bread and does a good job of evenly toasting the surface of the bread. However, it toasts the top face more than the bottom face.
It's not intended for air frying and does a bad job with commonly air-fried foods like French fries or crispy Brussels sprouts. Like other toaster ovens that lack a fan, it cooks your food much more slowly than a dedicated air fryer, and when it's done, only a small proportion is crispy.
It preheats slowly, especially for such a small toaster oven. Its elements don't stay on for the entire preheat cycle. Instead, they start cycling on and off when the toaster oven is still 50 °F cooler than the selected setting. The effect is that it preheats slower than many larger toaster ovens. However, this behavior helps prevent the toaster oven from overshooting your selected setting at the beginning of cooking.
It has excellent temperature stability. The actual temperature inside the toaster oven stays consistent and accurate during cooking. It never overshoots your selected temperature setting, which helps avoid burning or drying out your food before it's done cooking. The temperature inside the cooking chamber is uniform as well.